Stephanie Dodd Shares Personal Story at Nelsonville Opioid Roundtable

March 1, 2018

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NELSONVILLE – Last night, Stephanie Dodd, elected member of Ohio’s State Board of education and candidate for Ohio Lieutenant Governor, moderated a roundtable on Ohio’s opioid crisis and its devastating effects on communities throughout the state.

“I will not let my sister be a statistic, because right now that’s what she is. She cannot just be one of the six or seven thousand people who died in 2017 from an opioid overdose,” said Stephanie Dodd.

“I know I can’t fix this for my family, but if I can fix it for someone else’s, I will. Joe and I are committed to addressing this epidemic in a way that is meaningful. We have a plan that is based on real conversations and real ideas from real people.”

This roundtable was open to the public. Local residents attended to share their personal stories and offer ideas on how to address this epidemic.

Participants ranged from law enforcement to medical professionals to parents to young children – each deeply impacted by the opioid crisis in their personal and/or professional lives. Several candidates for local and regional offices attended as well.

After the roundtable, Stephanie visited The Hive, a safe space for local children to spend time outside school hours. Several of the children who visit The Hive have experienced the devastation of the opioid crisis in their own lives.

“I can’t express how proud I am of Stephanie for sharing her story in order to help others. Her strength is an inspiration,” said Senator Schiavoni.

“The loss that Stephanie and her family have suffered is unimaginable, but thousands of Ohio families experience the same thing every day. That should be unacceptable to us.We have the ability to use the state’s emergency fund right now to make a dent in this crisis, but the governor refuses. We won’t stop fighting until Ohio has a system in place to prevent overdoses and save lives.”

At the roundtable, Stephanie explained the plan that she and Joe Schiavoni have proposed to address this crisis.

Their plan is based on a bill that Senator Schiavoni has been pushing at the Ohio Statehouse for nearly a year. It would use just 10% of Ohio’s “rainy day” emergency fund to tackle the opioid epidemic. Read more here.

Ohio could begin addressing its opioid crisis immediately if Joe’s bill were signed into law.